My dad sent the following and I thought I’d share it. Unknown Armies fans should find this inspirational.

It’s a set of guidelines for hunting birds on the grounds of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, given out in years gone by. That’s right. Hunting with live firearms on the grounds of a prison, with the assistance of trustees–long-time prisoners trusted enough to serve as de facto prison staff.

Dad writes: “Karen and I accompanied Mom and Dad on a memorable dove shoot at Parchman when we received this memo. Karen was agog at the sight of trusties running around the fields retrieving fallen doves and bringing them to the gunners just like a good retriever should. I never hunted again. We especially love #5.”

(For those of you keeping score at home, yes: my father and I both fell in love with women named Karen. Must be hereditary.)

Naturally, my dad was also reminded of a joke:

It seems a hunter grew tired of trying to find places he could hunt quail and decided to try a shooting preserve. He paid his fee and was surprised when the fellow assigned to him headed to the fields without any hunting dogs along. The guide was good, though, and put the hunter on birds all day long with tremendous results. He even retrieved the birds without fail as well. A wonderful day of upland bird shooting was enjoyed by the hunter and he brought a couple of fellow hunters back with him a few weeks later to show the place off. He was alarmed when the guide he was assigned turned out to be a 14 year old boy. He asked the boy why the guide he had used before was not available. “Oh, that was Pa,” the lad replied. “Ma shot him.” “Why in the world?” the hunter asked. The boy said, “Well, he got to chasing rabbits.”